Piercefield Park and Legacies of Enslavement

British colonialism in the Caribbean was based on the legal determination that enslaved Africans were non-human. Both Morris and Wells relied on enslaved people for their fortunes, and we benefit from how they chose to use those fortunes to develop and maintain the land we gather on.
The Green Gathering recognises the actions of the Morris and Wells families on the Caribbean islands of Antigua and St Kitts as Crimes against Humanity and acknowledges the continuing harms and suffering that remain as legacies of those actions.
We agree with the view expressed in 2022 by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that the vulnerability of ecosystems and people in the Caribbean to climate change has its roots in chattel enslavement and environmental degradation from plantation construction. We recognise that the crimes committed by the Morris’ and the Wells’ contributed to contemporary vulnerabilities in the Caribbean to climate change.